Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry at the Frankfort, Indiana Community Public Library, 4 November
2005 |
| Born: |
August 5 1934 (1934--) (age 73)
Henry County, Kentucky |
| Occupation: |
Farmer, Writer |
| Nationality: |
United States |
| Writing period: |
20th-21st Centuries |
| Genres: |
Fiction, Poetry, Essays |
| Debut works: |
Nathan Coulter, 1960
The Broken Ground, 1964
The Rise, 1968 |
| Influences: |
The Bible, Homer, Virgil,
William Shakespeare, George Herbert,
Andrew Marvell, Thomas Jefferson,
Jane Austen, Henry David Thoreau,
Mark Twain, John Burroughs, Sidney Lanier, Franklin Hiram King, Sarah Orne Jewett, William Butler Yeats,
Albert Howard, Robert Frost, Ananda Coomaraswamy, William Carlos Williams,
Aldo Leopold, William Faulkner, Harlan Hubbard, Titus Burckhardt, Kathleen Raine, Eudora Welty, Kenneth Rexroth, Harry M. Caudill, Wallace Stegner, Thomas Merton, |
| Influenced: |
James Baker Hall, Wes Jackson,
Scott Russell Sanders, Bill McKibben,
Barbara Kingsolver, Terry Tempest
Williams, William Greider |
Wendell Berry (born August 5, 1934, Henry County, Kentucky) is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and
essays. He is also an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
Biography
Berry is the first of four children born to John Berry, a lawyer and tobacco farmer in Henry
County, and Virginia Berry. The families of both of his parents have farmed in Henry County for at least five generations. Berry
attended secondary school at Millersburg Military Institute, then earned
a B.A. and M.A. in English at the University
of Kentucky. In 1957, he completed his M.A. and married Tanya Amyx. In 1958, he attended Stanford University's creative writing program thanks to a
Wallace Stegner Fellowship, studying under Stegner in a seminar that included
Larry McMurtry, Edward Abbey, and Ken Kesey. In April 1960, Berry's first novel, Nathan Coulter, was published. In 1961, a
Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship took Berry and his family to Italy and
France, where he came to know Wallace Fowlie, professor of French at Duke University. From 1962 to 1964, he taught English at New York
University's University College in the Bronx. In 1964, he began teaching
creative writing at the University of
Kentucky, from which he resigned in 1977.[1] During
this time in Lexington, he came to know author Guy Davenport, as well as author
Thomas Merton and photographer Ralph Eugene
Meatyard.[2]
In 1965, Berry moved to a farm he had purchased, Lane's Landing, and began growing tobacco, corn and small grains on what
eventually grew into a 125-acre homestead. Lane's Landing is near Port Royal, Kentucky, in
northwestern Kentucky, and his parents' birthplaces, and is on the banks of the Kentucky
River, not far from where it flows into the Ohio River. Berry has farmed, resided, and
written at Lane's Landing down to the present day. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he edited and wrote for the Rodale Press, including its publications Organic Gardening and Farming and The New Farm. From
1987 to 1993, he returned to the English Department of the University of Kentucky.[3][4]
Berry has written at least twenty-five books (or chapbooks) of poems, sixteen volumes of
essays, and eleven novels and short story collections. His writing is grounded in the notion that one's work ought to be rooted
in and responsive to one's place.
Ideas in Berry's work
His nonfiction serves as an extended conversation about the life he values. According to
Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies,
healthy rural communities, connection to
place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life,
fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the
interconnectedness of life. The threats Berry finds to this good life include: industrial farming and the industrialization of life,
ignorance, hubris, greed, violence against others and against the natural world, the eroding
topsoil in the United States, global economics, and
environmental destruction. Berry is among the most eloquent of contemporary
Christian authors, frequently referring to the Gospels, the
stewardship of Creation, and peacemaking.
Berry is a major defender of agrarian values. His appreciation for traditional farming techniques, such as those of the
Amish, grew in the 1970s, due in part to exchanges with Draft Horse Journal publisher
Maurice Telleen. Berry has long been friendly to and supportive of Wes Jackson, believing
that Jackson's agricultural research at The Land Institute lives out the promise of
"solving for pattern" and using "nature as model."
The concept of "Solving for pattern", coined by Berry in his essay[5] of the same title, is the process of finding solutions that solve multiple problems, while minimizing
the creation of new problems. The essay was originally published in the Rodale Press
periodical The New Farm. Though Mr. Berry's use of the phrase was in direct reference to agriculture, it has since come to enjoy broader use throughout the design community.[6][7]
The Port William fiction
Berry's fiction to date consists of eight novels and twenty-three short stories (the short stories are collected in That
Distant Land, 2004) which, when read as a whole, form a chronicle of the fictional small Kentucky town of Port William.
Because of his long-term, ongoing exploration of the life of an imagined place, Berry has been compared to William Faulkner. Yet, although Port William is no stranger to murder, suicide, alcoholism, and the
full range of losses that touch human lives, it lacks the extreme delineation of character and plot that characterize much of
Faulkner. Hence Berry is sometimes described as working in an idealized, pastoral, or nostalgic mode, a characterization of his
work which he resists: "If your work includes a criticism of history, which mine certainly does, you can't be accused of wanting
to go back to something, because you're saying that what we were wasn't good enough." [8]
The effect of profound shifts in the agricultural practices of the United States, and the disappearance of traditional
agrarian life, are some of the major concerns of the Port William fiction, though the theme is often only a background or subtext
to the stories themselves. The Port William fiction attempts to portray, on a local scale, what "a human economy ... conducted
with reverence" [9] looked like in the past -- and what
civic, domestic, and personal virtues might be evoked by such an economy were it pursued today. Social as well as seasonal
changes mark the passage of time. Readers of Berry's essays can appreciate that the Port William stories allow the author to
explore the human dimensions of the decline of the family farm and farm community, under the influence of expanding
post-World War II agribusiness. But these works rarely fall into simple didacticism, and
are never merely tales of decline. Each is grounded in a realistic depiction of character and community. In A Place on
Earth (1967), for example, farmer Mat Feltner comes to terms with the loss of his only son, Virgil. In the course of the
novel, we see how not only Mat but the entire community wrestles with the acute costs of World War II.
Berry's fiction also allows him to explore the literal and metaphorical implications of marriage as that which binds
individuals, families, and communities to each other and to Nature itself - yet not all of Port William is happily or
conventionally married. "Old Jack" Beechum struggles with significant incompatibilities with his wife, and with a brief yet
fulfilling extramarital affair. The barber Jayber Crow lives with a forlorn, secret, and unrequited love for a woman, believing
himself "mentally" married to her even though she knows nothing about it. Burley Coulter never formalizes his bond with Kate
Helen Branch, the mother of his son. Yet, each of these men find themselves firmly bound up in the community, the "membership,"
of Port William.
Berry's novel, Hannah Coulter (2004), presents a concise vision of Port William's "membership." The story encompasses
Hannah's life, including the Great Depression, World War II, the post-war industrialization of agriculture, the
flight of youth to urban employment, and the consequent remoteness of grandchildren. The tale is told in the voice of an old
woman twice widowed, who has experienced much loss yet has never been defeated. Somehow, lying at the center of her strength is
the "membership" --- the fact that people care for each other and, even in absence, hold each other in a kind of presence. All in
all, Hannah Coulter embodies many of the themes of Berry's Port William saga.
Works
Fiction
- Nathan Coulter, 1960 novel
- A Place on Earth, 1967 novel, revised 1983
- The Memory of Old Jack, 1974 novel
- The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership, 1986
- Remembering, 1988 novel
- The Discovery of Kentucky, 1991 story
- Fidelity: Five Stories, 1992
- Watch with Me: And Six Other Stories of the Yet-Remembered Ptolemy Proudfoot and His Wife, Miss Minnie, Née
Quinch, 1994
- A World Lost, 1997 novel
- Two More Stories Of The Port William Membership, 1997
- Jayber Crow, 2000 novel
- Sonata At Payne Hollow, 2001 play
- Three Short Novels: Nathan Coulter; Remembering; A World Lost, 2002
- That Distant Land : The Collected Stories of Wendell Berry, 2004
- Hannah Coulter, 2004 novel
- Andy Catlett : Early Travels, 2006 novel
Nonfiction
- The Hidden Wound, 1970
- The Long-Legged House, 1971 (2004)
- A Continuous Harmony : Essays Cultural and Agricultural, 1971 (2003)
- The Unforeseen Wilderness: An Essay on Kentucky's Red River Gorge, 1971 (2006)
- The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, 1978
- Recollected Essays, 1965-1980, 1981
- The Gift of Good Land; Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural, 1981
- Standing by Words, 1983 (2005)
- Meeting the Expectations of the Land: Essays in Sustainable Agriculture and Stewardship, 1984 editor with
Wes Jackson and Bruce Colman
- Home Economics, 1987
- What Are People For?, 1990
- Descendants and Ancestors of Captain James W. Berry, 1990 with Laura Berry
- Standing on Earth, 1991
- What can turn us from this deserted future... , 1991 broadside
- The Discovery of Kentucky, 1991
- Harlan Hubbard: Life and Work, 1992 biography
- Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community : Eight Essays, 1993
- Another Turn of the Crank, 1995
- Three On Community, 1996
- Late Harvest: Rural American Writing, 1996
- Waste Land: Meditations on a Ravaged Landscape, 1997 with Mark Dowie and David T. Hanson
- Grace, Photographs of Rural America, 2000 with Gregory Spaid and Gene Logsdon
- Life Is a Miracle : An Essay Against Modern Superstition, 2001
- In the Presence of Fear: Three Essays for a Changed World, 2001
- The Art Of The Commonplace The Agrarian Essays Of Wendell Berry, 2002 edited by Norman
Wirzba
- Citizens Dissent: Security, Morality, and Leadership In An Age Of Terror, 2003
- Citizenship Papers, 2003
- Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy by James Baker Hall, Wendell Berry (Contributor),
2004
- The Way of Ignorance, November 2005
- Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings of Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness, November 2005
Poetry
- November Twenty Six Nineteen Hundred Sixty Three, 1964 poem
- The Broken Ground, 1964
- Openings, 1968
- Findings, 1969
- Farming: A Handbook, 1970
- The Country of Marriage, 1973
- Sayings & Doings, 1975
- To What Listens, 1975
- Horses, 1975 chapbook poem
- Kentucky River, Two Poems, 1976
- There is Singing Around Me, 1976
- Clearing, 1977
- Three Memorial Poems, 1977
- The Gift of Gravity, 1979
- A Part, 1980
- The Salad, 1980 chapbook poem
- The Wheel, 1982
- From the Distance, 1982 broadside
- Collected Poems 1957-1982, 1985
- The Wild Rose, 1986 broadside
- The Landscape of Harmony, 1987
- Sabbaths, 1987
- I go from the woods into the cleared field, 1987 broadside poem
- Traveling at Home, 1989
- Sayings & Doings and An Eastward Look, 1990
- Entries: Poems, 1994
- A Timbered Choir:The Sabbath Poems, 1979-1997, 1998
- Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1998
- Sabbaths 2002, 2004 chapbook
- Given, 2005
Interviews
- Beattie, L. Elisabeth (Editor). "Wendell Berry" in Conversations With Kentucky Writers, U P of Kentucky, 1996.
- Berger, Rose Marie. "Wendell Berry interview complete text," Sojourner's Magazine, July 2004 [1]
- Fisher-Smith, Jordan. "Field Observations: An Interview with Wendell Berry'" [2]
- Grubbs, Morris Allen (Editor). Conversations with Wendell Berry, U P of Mississippi, 2007.
- Weinreb, Mindy. "A Question a Day: A Written Conversation with Wendell Berry" in Merchant[10]
Awards
Books about Berry
- Angyal, Andrew. Wendell Berry. New York: Twayne, 1995.
- Goodrich, Janet. The Unforeseen Self in the Works of Wendell Berry. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2001.
- Merchant, Paul, ed. Wendell Berry (American Authors Series). Lewiston, Idaho: Confluence, 1991.
- Peters, Jason, ed. Wendell Berry: Life and Work. Lexington: U P of Kentucky, 2007.
- Smith, Kimberly K. Wendell Berry and the Agrarian Tradition: A Common Grace. Lawrence: U P of Kansas, 2003.
See also
References
- ^ Angyal, Andrew. Wendell Berry. New York: Twayne, 1995, ISBN
0805746285
- ^ Davenport, Guy. "Tom and Gene" in Father Louie: Photographs of Thomas
Merton by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. New York: Timken, 1991.
- ^ Angyal, Andrew. Wendell Berry. New York: Twayne, 1995, ISBN
0805746285
- ^ The Quivira Coalition’s 6th Annual Conference, conference bulletin, page
14, http://quiviracoalition.org/images/pdfs/1018-2007_Conference_Program.pdf
- ^ Berry, Wendell, The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and
Agricultural. San Francisco: North Point, 1981., ISBN 0-86547-052-9
- ^ Orr, David. "The Designer's Challenge" (commencement address to the School
of Design, University of Pennsylvania, on May 14, 2007) http://www.eoearth.org/article/The_designer's_challenge_(speech_by_David_Orr)
- ^ Luoni, Stephen. "Solving for Pattern: Development of Place-Building Design
Models" http://www.di.net/article.php?article_id=506
- ^ Fisher-Smith, Jordan. "Field Observations: An Interview with Wendell Berry.
http://arts.envirolink.org/interviews_and_conversations/WendellBerry.html
- ^ Berry, Wendell. "Imagination in Place." The Way of Ignorance.
Washington, D. C.: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005. 50.
- ^ Merchant, Paul, ed. Wendell Berry (American Authors Series). Lewiston,
Idaho: Confluence, 1991.
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